The Government Travel Charge Card Program includes a contractor-issued travel card sponsored by the government. This card is designed to be used for all official travel expenses, not for personal purposes. However, the General Services Administration (GSA) has become aware of a phishing scam that may affect not only this but also personal Visa credit cards used by military personnel.
Many active military use a credit card to purchased military discounted airline tickets for travel within the U.S. and abroad. Earlier this year, Visa and the GSA were informed of an email phishing scam that uses both “Visa” and the program “Verified by Visa” to capture credit card information from unsuspecting cardholders. The Defense Travel Management Office subsequently issued a warning notification on its Web site.
With a military discount, airline ticket prices are very reasonable. This cost savings is negated when scammers fraudulently make purchases with the Visa card used to buy the ticket. Military personnel should be wary of an email claiming to be from Visa that instructs the recipient to follow a link to activate the credit card security protection offered by the “Verified by Visa” program.
The email appears to contain genuine Visa logos and official formatting. However, it is designed to steal financial information from military personnel who use Visa cards to purchase discount airline tickets and other items. Recipients who click the link within the email message are taken to a fake Web site that looks like an authentic Visa Web page. This site requests details regarding the Visa account, which are then harvested by the scammers.
Military personnel should be wary of unsolicited emails requesting them to click a link and then provide either personal or financial details. They should not click the link or respond to the email. Instead, they should report the email to the credit card issuer via the telephone number on the credit card or their monthly statement.